ALEX BELLY BjELOGRLIC
537
his transformation, oppressed by hard work, the obligation to support his
family and additionally burdened by the bankruptcy of his father's firm, the
young salesman represents a kind of marionette who is manipulated by a
menagerie of economic, social, and familial persecutions. Mter his conver–
sion into an economically useless being, members of Gregor's family
suddenly become capable of their own business undertakings. They grow
optimistic about the future, even more so, as they attempt to forget his pres–
ence. Forsaken by everyone, the poor insect finally
dies
of exhaustion, but
not before he lovingly bids farewell to his family. How is this motif of trans–
formation--one of the predominant themes throughout Kafka's
oeuvr~to
be comprehended?
Mystery is often regarded as an inherent quality of this kind of fiction.
It
is spoken about allegorically, as a rational substance that cannot be
dis–
cerned in the fiction of the absurd. A regular element of Kafka's stories is
an indefinable power that opposes the main character, who entangles
him–
self again and again in futile efforts to explain its causes and purposes. In a
certain number of stories this power is presented as the burden of the lax
parental authority. "A Letter to a Father," a well-known work, was partic–
ularly stimulating to the critics who tried to find the key to the author's
fundamental literary obsession in the realm of Freudian categories. But, the
usual psychoanalytical analysis, however filled with conviction, eventually
appeared too obvious; it seemed to have spent its possibilities, arriving from
the edge to tear off Kafka's enigmatic creation. This analysis touched on,
and over-stressed, only one of the three motivational nuclei around which
the narrative is spun. The theme of unusually complex family relations is
probably the most vivid way to conjure a greater field of natural powers
that act as frustrations. A more complete picture can only be gained by
correlating this theme with the motifs of hunger and transformation,
which are equally emphasized in Kafka's work. The story concerning the
unusual case of the "Prague acquisitor" is significant chiefly because these
three themes are closely connected in it.
One possible method of interpretation has been suggested in Elias
Canetti's book about Kafka's correspondence with Felicia Bauer. Throughout
his work, Kafka was actually practicing disappearance (transformation by
changing his characters into various animals, thereby enabling them to escape
the savage mechanisms of violence and power). In Canetti's view, a writer
could find inspiration for that kind of behavior in the ancient Chinese tradi–
tion of transformation, rooted in oriental philosophy, which greatly interested
Kafka, but this by no means closes the circle of questions. Canetti's idea is just
one in a series of efforts to shed light on Sarnsa's problem from the standpoint
of the writer's intention, his existential philosophy, the era's prevailing ideo–
logical circumstances, and from a medical point of view.
